Away fans / tourists in home sections

[dannybcity]

If the club are genuinely concerned then why are they selling tickets to these people without prior purchase history?

Why don’t they impose a ban on 3rd party ticketing sites? Any tickets to be resold should be done via the club on the OS. Any season ticket holder found to be selling or passing on a ticket to a rival fan should be banned and lose their season ticket.

I don’t see why it’s so difficult.

Again, not having a go at you. If the club were arsed they’d stop it over night.

If you were to ask the club they'd say that they're not selling them without purchase history. There was criteria in place for Real Madrid.

Regarding resellers, the club say are trying to stop them. They have official resellers who sometimes operate under several trading names so the same ticket is listed on several sites. And whilst they are working to stop unofficial reseller, it's difficult as they stop one site and another pops up.

All of that will likely be detailed more clearly in the minutes. But just to be 100% clear, that's a summary of the clubs response not mine.

In my opinion this is a symptom of a much bigger problem, ticketing. When you price out regular fans somone else has to fill that seat and it's becomes increasingly harder to control who fills it the more City fans you price out. Then it becomes self fulfilling because City fans stop wanting to attend because they don't feel safe or the atmosphere is a bit shit and it's not worth +£50.

 

[.db.]

From the MUEN article.

Illegal ticket sites are one issue but it should be noted that the club have eight authorised selling partners listed on their website.

The club do not have to disclose any of this information and declined to offer specifics when asked by the Manchester Evening News.

The fact that clubs, including City, use these sort of agencies (or as I like to call them ticket tout sites) is a cold hard fact, so should be easy to Police by the authorities. They shouldn’t be allowed because they are ticket touting.

This was 13 years ago:

Dispatches defeats High Court injunction attempt by Viagogo | Channel 4

C4 can now reveal how real fans are paying the price for hidden practices used by live event promoters and a major 'fan-to-fan ticket exchange'

www.channel4.com

Yet football clubs are getting away Scott free with it, still, in 2025.

They are worldwide organisations, lots of Americans buy tickets this way. They seem to think the pricing is normal. I’ve spoken to a few down the years who are flabbergasted to say the least when I say ‘yeah, there’s a £30 cap on away tickets in the PL so you shouldn’t be paying £300 for one’.

 

[shemnel]

Sorry to be dim, but we can still receive tickets as emails can't we? As in, the download to phone link in an email?

If so, then isn't this what is being sold in a lot of cases?

 

[David White]

If you were to ask the club they'd say that they're not selling them without purchase history. There was criteria in place for Real Madrid.

Regarding resellers, the club say are trying to stop them. They have official resellers who sometimes operate under several trading names so the same ticket is listed on several sites. And whilst they are working to stop unofficial reseller, it's difficult as they stop one site and another pops up.

All of that will likely be detailed more clearly in the minutes. But just to be 100% clear, that's a summary of the clubs response not mine.

In my opinion this is a symptom of a much bigger problem, ticketing. When you price out regular fans somone else has to fill that seat and it's becomes increasingly harder to control who fills it the more City fans you price out. Then it becomes self fulfilling because City fans stop wanting to attend because they don't feel safe or the atmosphere is a bit shit and it's not worth +£50.

Thanks for the response mate.

The bit I don’t get and feel the club could do more on, is that the club own the ticket and if they chose to they could take my ticket off me at any point if I break the rules. The club surely know what ticket number is being moved through one of these sites. Just block them. I honestly don’t see it as being that challenging from a technical perspective.

City also don’t need official resellers. Nobody in the world that wants a ticket for any football club would go to a reseller as the first port of call unless they’re away fans trying to gain access to the home end. If clubs genuinely want to control this issue then just put the resellers out of business. It’d be doing the world a favour anyway.

 

[Prophet of Doom]

I agree that for games like this, or the derby, the club should not allow tickets to be sold outside of their direct control. But how can you impose a ban on third-party ticketing sites which are outside their control?

As an ex-CM rep I can tell you I was involved in discussions with the club about Liverpool games and tickets being sold to away fans in home areas. The club had imposed a minimum points level for one game but found that Liverpool fans had got round this by buying cheap tickets for cup games and thereby getting the points. So they stopped that and introduced a minimum number of games attended (I think it was five) as the criterion. I guess that still wouldn't stop the most determined away fans but it helps.

The club has never been particularly forthcoming about the measures it takes to investigate these incidents but I'd say there were two obvious solutions. If the ticket was sourced from one of our official partners then their contract should be terminated. If it came from an individual or OSC, then the individual should have their season ticket revoked and also be prosecuted for unauthorised resellling. If it's an OSC then they should be told they will never see a ticket again.

You keep on talking about your time on City Matters and the clubs attitude to tickets.

But the landscape has changed hugely in the past couple of years. The parasitic agencies are heavily involved at every PL club milking tourists with tickets provided by the clubs.

Tickets being sold for huge markups via agencies is happening every week and has fuck all to do with some fantasy that away fans buying cup tickets to get points.

I could tell you multiple examples of friends this season that have sold tickets on the exchange - the tickets never appear for sale on the ticket site - come match day some tourist is sat there that confirms they paid £300 through an agency.

There will no doubt be the usual collection of LFC fans in home areas today that have paid £300 so im not having anything the club said at City Matters last week. They know exactly what is going on.

 

[David White]

I agree that for games like this, or the derby, the club should not allow tickets to be sold outside of their direct control. But how can you impose a ban on third-party ticketing sites which are outside their control?

As an ex-CM rep I can tell you I was involved in discussions with the club about Liverpool games and tickets being sold to away fans in home areas. The club had imposed a minimum points level for one game but found that Liverpool fans had got round this by buying cheap tickets for cup games and thereby getting the points. So they stopped that and introduced a minimum number of games attended (I think it was five) as the criterion. I guess that still wouldn't stop the most determined away fans but it helps.

The club has never been particularly forthcoming about the measures it takes to investigate these incidents but I'd say there were two obvious solutions. If the ticket was sourced from one of our official partners then their contract should be terminated. If it came from an individual or OSC, then the individual should have their season ticket revoked and also be prosecuted for unauthorised resellling. If it's an OSC then they should be told they will never see a ticket again.

In this day and age the club can (whether it wants to is another question) track every single event on every single account. So if I transfer my ticket to wherever or whoever they know I’ve done it, they know when I’ve done it and where I’ve sent it to.

Maybe they’ve tried to take the easiest option to stop tickets getting into the wrong hands and it clearly hasn’t worked. As you say, the most determined away fan will find a way. But if it’s 3 areas of 600 it makes a huge difference.

Agree with all of your last paragraph. Hard sanctions are very good deterrents.

 

[David White]

And that includes hospitality as well, which I think is a major source of individual away tickets that are not being used, but are being sold on to ticket touting websites for a profit.

Question.

Since his or her appointment, what exactly has the Ticket Compliance Manager done? They certainly haven't stopped the flow of away and home tickets getting into the hands of people who don't support the club. What exactly is his or her role? And what exactly is his or her remit? I know we won't ever find out.

Yes, hospitality is a big one. I know a bloke that has 4 in the tunnel club. He can get lots of away tickets to distribute at his will for ANY game. He doesn’t, but others will. Especially those that are bought by businesses.

As for the ticket office management team. It beggars belief. The amount of problems people have with their tickets, on top of this issue is mind blowing.

 

[give it to gordon]

If you were to ask the club they'd say that they're not selling them without purchase history. There was criteria in place for Real Madrid.

Regarding resellers, the club say are trying to stop them. They have official resellers who sometimes operate under several trading names so the same ticket is listed on several sites. And whilst they are working to stop unofficial reseller, it's difficult as they stop one site and another pops up.

All of that will likely be detailed more clearly in the minutes. But just to be 100% clear, that's a summary of the clubs response not mine.

In my opinion this is a symptom of a much bigger problem, ticketing. When you price out regular fans somone else has to fill that seat and it's becomes increasingly harder to control who fills it the more City fans you price out. Then it becomes self fulfilling because City fans stop wanting to attend because they don't feel safe or the atmosphere is a bit shit and it's not worth +£50.

The criteria should have really helped local fans, fans like me who live 300 odd miles away it rules me on cost grounds of attending enough 3 cl just to qualify for knock out stages.
I can live with the fact I'll never be able to afford attending again IF it was all City fans that attended in the home sections.

We went to loads of cl games before covid and great times against RM, PSG etc. Now I have to sit at home and see loads and loads of half n half and even away fans on seats that we don't qualify for. It stinks to be honest. The club wanted my money pre covid, post covid it's almost impossible to get a ticket for the pl or cl let alone sat next to each other.

Edit on another point if we could get tickets sat together we probably would go because of the risk of being surrounded by tourists and half n half !!

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

You keep on talking about your time on City Matters and the clubs attitude to tickets.

But the landscape has changed hugely in the past couple of years. The parasitic agencies are heavily involved at every PL club milking tourists with tickets provided by the clubs.

Tickets being sold for huge markups via agencies is happening every week and has fuck all to do with some fantasy that away fans buying cup tickets to get points.

I could tell you multiple examples of friends this season that have sold tickets on the exchange - the tickets never appear for sale on the ticket site - come match day some tourist is sat there that confirms they paid £300 through an agency.

There will no doubt be the usual collection of LFC fans in home areas today that have paid £300 so im not having anything the club said at City Matters last week. They know exactly what is going on.

You do talk some shite sometimes. It was the 2016/17 season when we played Celtic and people on here were up in arms about the thousands of Celtic fans in home areas, so it's not just the last couple of years.

And this "fantasy" of away fans buying chepaer cup tickets to get the points was one of the few times the club were open with CM about how the issue had occurred, and why they changed the criteria for the next season's game. And that would have been about four years ago.

I have no issue with people talking sensibly about this issue but some on here just descend into the realms of fantasy and stupidity.

 

[jrb]

Yes, hospitality is a big one. I know a bloke that has 4 in the tunnel club. He can get lots of away tickets to distribute at his will for ANY game. He doesn’t, but others will. Especially those that are bought by businesses.

As for the ticket office management team. It beggars belief. The amount of problems people have with their tickets, on top of this issue is mind blowing.

The club isn't going to suspend or ban a person who has paid x for a season long Tunnel Club hospitality membership, if he or she is selling away tickets to ticket touting websites. The club will turn a blind eye to it.

Just as importantly, even more so, is City staff at the highest level within the club giving away hard to get away tickets to their friends who don't support City, which was clearly evident at Liverpool away, and Ipswich away, that caused a massive uproar amongst the fans.

Like others have said, the club can stop most of these ticket issue instantly or overtime, but it looks like the club doesn't want to do that.

 

[Marvin.]

Back in the day if you were in the wrong end either for a fight or undercover everyone from both sets of fans knew the risk and potential outcomes.

In these touristy times that's not always the case and either by being an idiot or having no clue how to behave trouble kicks off as there's still plenty of passion for want of a better word within a lot of fans.

I'm in 315, these days the seats around me are no longer 100% S/T holders but still heavy with us.

Would myself and the surrounding guys in the dozen or so radius of me 'kick off'? Enough to quickly fill someone in. The answer is undoubtedly yes, in the heat of a match would consideration be given to it being a tourist? Very unlikely.

I don't what you mean by 'touristy times'. League games are 80% seasoncard or away fans. For a midweek cup game, I have noticed that seasoncard holders largely don't go. In their place are a lot of new fans. You call them tourists but that's an insult and I don't see how you can know that. On a CL night you see a lot of new fans. I think they are just local Mancs who on these nights can get to an exciting big game, and so they come. A large number seem to me to be Asian. I don't like that seasoncard holders are starting to pick and choose their games, but I like that asian youth are coming to City in large numbers. That means Manchester is not a racist City. It's the ultimate test of a City / community.

 

[David White]

The club isn't going to suspend or ban a person who has paid x for a season long Tunnel Club hospitality membership, if he or she is selling away tickets to ticket touting websites. The club will turn a blind eye to it.

Just as importantly, even more so, is City staff at the highest level within the club giving away hard to get away tickets to their friends who don't support City, which was clearly evident at Liverpool away, and Ipswich away, that caused a massive uproar amongst the fans.

Like others have said, the club can stop most of these ticket issue instantly or overtime, but it looks like the club doesn't want to do that.

The thing that frustrates me more than anything is that the club could stop it in a heartbeat and won’t. So any notion that they are concerned or that they’re working hard is just not cutting it. They aren’t doing enough.

Staff taking tickets as a perk and moving them on for money or to away fans should be a sackable offence.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

The thing that frustrates me more than anything is that the club could stop it in a heartbeat and won’t. So any notion that they are concerned or that they’re working hard is just not cutting it. They aren’t doing enough.

Staff taking tickets as a perk and moving them on for money or to away fans should be a sackable offence.

If we know Carlos Vincens address, we could send around a dozen pizza delivery guys each night.

 

[David White]

If we know Carlos Vincens address, we could send around a dozen pizza delivery guys each night.

Sounds like a plan. Anyone know it? :)

 

[Manc Born & Bred]

If you were to ask the club they'd say that they're not selling them without purchase history. There was criteria in place for Real Madrid.

Regarding resellers, the club say are trying to stop them. They have official resellers who sometimes operate under several trading names so the same ticket is listed on several sites. And whilst they are working to stop unofficial reseller, it's difficult as they stop one site and another pops up.

All of that will likely be detailed more clearly in the minutes. But just to be 100% clear, that's a summary of the clubs response not mine.

In my opinion this is a symptom of a much bigger problem, ticketing. When you price out regular fans somone else has to fill that seat and it's becomes increasingly harder to control who fills it the more City fans you price out. Then it becomes self fulfilling because City fans stop wanting to attend because they don't feel safe or the atmosphere is a bit shit and it's not worth +£50.

How do unofficial resellers obtain the tickets in the first place? If it’s from official resellers then terminate the deal with the official one. It shouldn’t be hard to trace where the original ticket came from. People who are ejected must show their tickets, these should be noted and investigations can start immediately. Official sites, if we have to deal with them must state every single site they operate and their trading details. If they don’t then any deal ceases.

Players, staff etc who give tickets away must make the people who have the tickets aware of a level of expected behaviour. And maybe just like we receive emails from the club about expectations the players and their hangers on should also. Any issues and that player no longer receives tickets.

This isn’t a difficult situation to resolve if the club want to resolve it and that’s the issue, they don’t.

 

[spinney]

I don't what you mean by 'touristy times'. League games are 80% seasoncard or away fans. For a midweek cup game, I have noticed that seasoncard holders largely don't go. In their place are a lot of new fans. You call them tourists but that's an insult and I don't see how you can know that. On a CL night you see a lot of new fans. I think they are just local Mancs who on these nights can get to an exciting big game, and so they come. A large number seem to me to be Asian. I don't like that seasoncard holders are starting to pick and choose their games, but I like that asian youth are coming to City in large numbers. That means Manchester is not a racist City. It's the ultimate test of a City / community.

A very high number of tourists do come to champions league games

Many of them do travel to Manchester either from abroad of out of town,

Many of them have bought short or city break especially to fit in a champions league game at the etihad

Not just a few dozen .... thousands of them

 

[shemnel]

How do unofficial resellers obtain the tickets in the first place? If it’s from official resellers then terminate the deal with the official one. It shouldn’t be hard to trace where the original ticket came from. People who are ejected must show their tickets, these should be noted and investigations can start immediately. Official sites, if we have to deal with them must state every single site they operate and their trading details. If they don’t then any deal ceases.

Players, staff etc who give tickets away must make the people who have the tickets aware of a level of expected behaviour. And maybe just like we receive emails from the club about expectations the players and their hangers on should also. Any issues and that player no longer receives tickets.

This isn’t a difficult situation to resolve if the club want to resolve it and that’s the issue, they don’t.

Many resellers are not that, they are just 3rd party touting sites, or 'peer to peer'. I think, for example, livefootballtickets don't actually have tickets, they are just a reselling site and some ticket sales are just on 'a promise', i.e. the seller might not even have the ticket yet that they are selling.

This is what led me to ask my question above; do tickets still come as emails? Can they be downloaded to a phone by anyone who has that email with link? That used to be the case, but I haven't personally done that for a few years

 

[marco]

ive bought a few times from the likes of livefootytickets, waited in Mary Ds for the prices to drop sometimes with minutes to go before kick off, it is made clear from the above seller that if asked you did not purchase the ticket and to say you were given the ticket from a freind, they do issue paper tickets on ocasions like Fulham away last season one of the two last away games we had to win if you remember, that ticket arived in the post with a face value of £30 'away section' from an office a stones through from the Etihad so you can make your own mind up whats going on there, i may be wrong but i'd suggest the club have a number of season tickets in random/bogus names some of which qualify for away game tickets, this could explain the above Fulham ticket, this could be anything from 1000-3000 season tickets going by the number of tickets available on 3rd party sites

 

[jrb]

Compare the change in support and the change in the atmosphere when we beat Real Madrid in the CL Semi-final and lost to them in the play off at the Etihad. The difference was unreal. Even when City were winning 2-1 in the play off the atmosphere was totally different and nowhere like it was during the semi-final. You can put that down to a few reasons, one being, the vast majority of the crowd were totally different at the play off game, so much so that it had a negative audible effect on the atmosphere.

 

[Marvin.]

A very high number of tourists do come to champions league games

Many of them do travel to Manchester either from abroad of out of town,

Many of them have bought short or city break especially to fit in a champions league game at the etihad

Not just a few dozen .... thousands of them

If we ignore the Real Madrid game, I don't think it makes much sense to claim that there are large numbers of non-affiliated fans flying in from all corners of the world to the Etihad for Champions League games. Against Real Madrid, I can imagine that there might me a very small number (<50).

On the other hand, the number of international blues (not tourists!) is increasing. See Ian Cheeseman's Forever Blue Youtube channel which always interviews City fans before and after the game. There are regularly City fans on there who have come from Canada, or the USA etc.